Transcultural and migratory Psychopathology

Journal title RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA
Author/s Mauro Braca, Ilaria Tarricone
Publishing Year 2017 Issue 2017/3
Language Italian Pages 13 P. 9-21 File size 684 KB
DOI 10.3280/RSF2017-003002
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

To migrate is always traumatic and thus any individual may suffer a higher level of vulnerability: i.e. losing symbolic, cultural and social references, enduring the blocking of identity construction processes, and experiencing the paralysis of temporalization and historicization. Such vulnerable states are set off by the migratory experience and by the post migratory host environment (socio-economic, cultural and relational factors). These vulnerable states may have psychopathological polymorphic sequelae, mainly expressed through the body (prime mode of beingin-the-world). Nowadays, scientific research on mental disorders, in migratory and trans-cultural contexts, identifies the key pre-, intra- and post-migratory risk factors, mainly examining the last post-migratory phase found to be more strongly associated with the onset and structuring of psychological distress among migrants. On the other hand, within this context of migration, personal resilience (arising from the individual’s resources) and effective therapeutic responses (deriving from symbolic and social networks that succeed in creating meaningful experiences) are also noted. The authors hence underline the need for further research on the relationship between migratory experiences and psychopathology, in order to have a better understanding of migrants’ psychological vulnerabilities and improve the mental health policies (prevention and promotion) for migrant populations.

Keywords: Psychopathology, migration, identity, culture.

  1. Beneduce R. Frontiere dell’identità e della memoria. Etnopsichiatria e migrazioni in un mondo creolo. Milano: FrancoAngeli; 1998.
  2. Nathan T. La folie des autres. Traité d’ethnopsychiatrie clinique. Paris: Dunod; 1986.
  3. Nathan T. Principi di etnopsicanalisi. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri; 1996.
  4. Nathan T. La fonction psychique du trauma. Nouvelle Revue d’Ethnopsychiatrie 1987; 8: 7-9.
  5. Moro MR. Bambini di qui venuti d’altrove. Saggio di transcultura. Milano: FrancoAngeli; 2005.
  6. Remotti F. Contro l’identità. Bari: Laterza; 1996.
  7. Mazzetti M. Il dialogo transculturale. Roma: Carocci; 2003.
  8. Foucault M. Malattia mentale e psicologia. Milano: Raffaello Cortina; 1997.
  9. Coppo P. Tra psiche e cultura. Elementi di etnopsichiatria. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri; 2003.
  10. Beneduce R. Dia-tige (“ombra recisa”). Strutture antropologiche della depressione e metamorfosi del legame sociale in Africa. In: Galzigna M, ed. La sfida dell’altro. Le scienze psichiche in una società multiculturale. Venezia: Marsilio; 1999. p. 57-94.
  11. Binswanger L. Delirio. Antropoanalisi e fenomenologia. Venezia: Marsilio; 1990.
  12. Sayad A. La doppia assenza. Milano: Raffaello Cortina; 2002.
  13. Vacchiano F. Emozioni, culture, psicopatologie. In: Beneduce R, ed. Mente, persona, cultura. Materiali di etnopsicologia. Torino: L’Harmattan Italia; 1999.
  14. Beneduce R. Mental disorders and traditional healing systems among the Dogon (Mali, West Africa). Transcultural Psychiatry 1996; 33: 189-220. DOI: 10.1177/136346159603300204
  15. Beiser M. The mental health of immigrants and refugees in Canada. Santé, Culture, Health 1988; 5(2): 197-213.
  16. Seeman M. On the meaning of alienation. American Sociological Review 1959; 24: 783-91.
  17. Kirkbride JB, Morgan C, Fearon P, Dazzan P, Murray RM, Jones PB. Neighbourhood-level effects on psychoses: re-examining the role of context. Psychological Medicine 2007; 37: 1413-25. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291707000499
  18. Van Os J, Hanssen M, Bijl RV, Vollebergh W. Prevalence of psychotic disorder and community level of psychotic symptoms: an urban-rural comparison. Archives of General Psychiatry 2001; 58: 663-8.
  19. Berg AO, Melle I, Rossberg JI, Romm KL, Larsson S, Lagerberg TV, et al. Perceived discrimination is associated with severity of positive and depression/anxiety symptoms in immigrants with psychosis: a cross-sectional study. BMC Psychiatry 2011; 11: 77. DOI: 10.1186/1471-244X-11-77
  20. Cooper C, Morgan C, Byrne M, Dazzan P, Morgan K, Hutchinson G, et al. Perceptions of disadvantage, ethnicity and psychosis. British Journal of Psychiatry 2008; 192: 185-90.
  21. Allardyce J, Gilmour H, Atkinson J, Rapson T, Bishop J, McCreadie RG. Social fragmentation, deprivation and urbanicity: relation to first-admission rates for psychoses. British Journal of Psychiatry 2005; 187: 401-6.
  22. Kirkbride JB, Jones PB. The prevention of schizophrenia--what can we learn from eco-epidemiology? Schizophrenia Bulletin 2011; 37: 262-71.
  23. Reininghaus UA, Morgan C, Simpson J, Dazzan P, Morgan K, Doody GA, et al. Unemployment, social isolation, achievement-expectation mismatch and psychosis: findings from the AESOP Study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 2008; 43: 743-51.
  24. Tarricone I, Atti AR, Salvatori F, Braca M, Ferrari S, Malmusi D, et al. Psychotic symptoms and general health in a socially disadvantaged migrant community in Bologna. International Journal of Social Psychiatry 2009; 55(3): 203-13. DOI: 10.1177/0020764008093445
  25. Morgan C, Charalambides M, Hutchinson G, Murray RM. Migration, ethnicity, and psychosis: toward a sociodevelopmental model. Schizophrenia Bulletin 2010; 36: 655-64.
  26. Chou KL. Pre-migration planning and depression among new migrants to Hong Kong: the moderating role of social support. Journal of Affective Disorders 2009; 114(1-3): 85-93.
  27. Tarricone I, Braca M, Atti AR, Pedrini E, Morri M, Poggi F, et al. Clinical features and pathway to care of migrants referring to the Bologna Transcultural Psychiatric Team. International Journal of Culture and Mental Health 2009; 2(1): 1-15. DOI: 10.1080/17542860802560314
  28. Braca M, Berardi D, Mencacci E, Belvederi Murri M, Mimmi S, Allegri F, et al. Understanding psychopathology in migrants: a mixed categoricaldimensional approach. International Journal of Social Psychiatry 2014; 60(3): 243-53.
  29. Taliani S, Vacchiano F. Altri corpi. Antropologia ed etnopsicologia della migrazione. Milano: Edizioni Unicopli; 2006.
  30. Zempleni A. Fra “sickness” e “illness”: dalla socializzazione all’individualizzazione della “malattia”. In: Beneduce R, ed. Mente, persona, cultura. Materiali di etnopsicologia. Torino: L’Harmattan Italia; 1999.
  31. European Network of Schizophrenia Networks for the Study of Gene-Environment Interactions (EU-GEI). Project site: www.eu-gei.eu.
  32. Tarricone I, Braca M, Allegri F, Barrasso G, Bellomo A, Berlincioni V, et al. First-episode psychosis and migration in Italy (PEP-Ita migration): a study in the Italian mental health services. BMC Psychiatry 2014; 14: 186. DOI: 10.1186/1471-244X-14-186

Mauro Braca, Ilaria Tarricone, La psicopatologia nel contesto transculturale e migratorio in "RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA" 3/2017, pp 9-21, DOI: 10.3280/RSF2017-003002